“It is in a state of complete degradation and this is an attack on the historical and cultural heritage of the region [Algarve], without the State, the owner of the property, showing any desire to restore it,” Hugo Pereira told Lusa news agency.

The Meia Praia Fort or São Roque Fort, classified as a monument of public interest in 2015 and since then in the hands of the State, was built in 1674 for coastal defense in the Bay of Lagos, but is currently abandoned and without any recovery plan.

The property was handed over to the Lagos Council, in the district of Faro, in 1873, which ceded it free of charge to the Customs Office, having operated until the mid-1990s of the last century as a post of the former Fiscal Guard.

According to the mayor, for several years the municipality of the Faro district has been “trying to reach an agreement” with the State that would allow the property to be rehabilitated and put at the service of the community”.

However, he said, on the numerous occasions when the city government tried to enter into dialogue, “it was always referred” to the REVIVE platform as if it were a private entity.

REVIVE is a program launched by the Government that opens up assets to private investment for the development of tourism projects, through the concession of their operation through public bidding.

The joint initiative of the Ministries of Economy, Culture, Finance and Defense aims to promote and streamline the processes of rehabilitation and valorisation of public heritage that is vacant, according to the program's portal.

Hugo Pereira lamented that city halls “always have to pay what belongs to the central State, even if it is to help maintain the State’s assets.”

“When it is in the interest of the guardianship, they ask us for our free support, but when it is the opposite, they want money,” he lamented.

The state of degradation in which the Forte da Meia Praia finds itself “is not worthy of anyone”, said the mayor, warning of “the risk of losing a monument of historical and cultural value for the Algarve”.

Lagos City Council also requested the Government on several occasions to transfer the property to the municipality, proposals that were rejected.

This municipal body launched a public petition last December calling for the rehabilitation of the property, an initiative that collected only 610 signatures, far from the 7,500 needed for it to be considered in the plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic.